Terrorist attacks, nuclear threats, blinding political tensions: fear rules the world, but also our lives. What is our money still worth? How will climate change determine our future? Fear is an instinctive emotion and largely determines our actions. In response, we are seeking control as something to hold on to: lack of control makes us feel powerless. On the other hand, too much control makes us feel uneasy and suspicious. Do we want to be spied on by security cameras? Is our data safe on the internet? Fear has a strong impact on everyone: it spreads like wildfire. How do psychiatrists and psychologists deal with this fear that is omnipresent? They seek methods of treatment, from therapeutic talks to deep brain stimulation. Or are we in fact attracted by fear – when it is packaged as entertainment – and does it protect us against impending doom – as a survival mechanism?

The exhibition Fear wants to show the many faces of this emotion, since fear is something of all times and cultures but has always been experienced, cultivated and combatted in a different way. From ‘God-fearing’ to fear of one’s fellow man, from highly personal phobia to mass hysteria.

As part of a cultural enterprise commemorating 150 years of friendly relations between Japan and Belgium, this is an international exchange art exhibition featuring 32 artists representing both countries. In Kanazawa, with its rich history of international exchange as sister city of 40 years to Ghent, Belgium, which retains a strong remnant of the Middle Ages, we host an art exhibition of a collection of pieces by artists leading the modern age in both countries, in order to further deepen cultural exchanges and cross-cultural understanding in the future.